Negotiating Critical Tensions: Creating an Online Resource on Vaccine Hesitancy for Healthcare Professionals

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy is regarded as a priority for public health and has a long history of social science research. As part of a qualitative project on childhood vaccine hesitancy, a team of social scientists translated their empirical findings into an online resource (known as a reusable learning object – RLO) aimed at healthcare professionals. The aim of this article is to identify the primary tensions we experienced in creating the RLO. As social scientists, first we were torn by clinicians’ requests for instruction/answers, versus our preference of providing opportunities for reflection. Second, between the RLO-specific convention of assertion versus our professional norms of providing evidence via referencing; and finally, by our tendency as academics to focus on textual aspects, versus the need to consider visual and multimedia conventions within the design of the RLO. By sharing these reflections, we hope to help other sociologists to navigate their own creative interdisciplinary projects and conclude by observing that our processes were themselves inherently reflexive.